>> more mass shootings. midterm fallout. >> we saw bodies, it was hard. >> we are going through very difficult days. but we will get through this. >> after mass shootings colorado and virginia, americans are in urmo violence thisni thanksgiving week. >> the reason we are losing is because donald trump has put himself for everybody else. >> a growing number of high-profile republicans calling the party for the former president. >> i hereby part -- yes. i hereby pardon chocolate and chip. >> president biden kicks off his holiday season at the white house, next. ♪

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washington week. we begin with the heartbreaking series of mass shooting this thanksgiving week. last weekend, a gunman opened fire inside of a nightclub come along considered to be a safe space for the lgbtq community with an historically conservative city. at least five people were killed. more than a dozen others injured. tuesday night in chesapeake, virginia, another gunman killed at least six people and injured others at a walmart. according to the gun violence archive, in the u.s. just this year, there have been more than 600 mass shootings. joining me to discuss this in more, the white house bureau chief for the washington post, dave phillips, national correspondent for the new york times, and susan page, the washington bureau chief at usa today. and a national investigative

correspondent for politico. thank you for being here. you have been on the ground coveng the mass shooting in your hometown, colorado springs. tell me what happened and how patrons fought back. >> it is really a sad but incredible story. midnight on saturday night. the gunman came in and started shooting rapidly with high-powered assault rifle. he killed five and injured about 18 others. what is remarkable is within one minute of when he started shooting, a 45-year-old combat veteran who was there with his wife and his daughter watching a drag performance, he tackled the shooter. with the help of other patrons, they essentially beat with his own gun and held him down until the police arrived something like three minutes later. it was one of the rare instances a shooting like this happens

that could have been so much worse if people had not immediately responded and taken a lot of risk. >> they took so many risks, they are heroes. i wonder if you could talk about the significance of this happening in colorado springs, given the history of that city as anti-lgbtq at times, conservative space historically. >> colorado springs, especially during the 1990's, was a center of not just conservative christianity, but an organized conservative christian political movement that sot to limit the rights of gays and lesbians and do other things to try and remake the world according to the values they wanted to see. that was a long time ago. they have waned in influence. but it is still a very conservative community. republicans outnumber registered

democrats 2-1. the club where the shooting happened. it was a community center in a lot of ways. a place where people could come together and have the community they can really see reflected in the larger culture and have a safe space. >> the other thing, there is a shooting in virginia at walmart. anyone who shopped anywhere, it gave me chills. going about your day, there is a terrible shooting. i want to point to the statistic that stopped me. not a single week in 2022 with at least more mass shootings. what are you hearing from your sources about how to prevent this from continuing to happen? >> most cases we never hear about them. they have become something of interest to an individual

community. yet there is no safe space for americans to go to. you have to go to elementary schools, churches, these have all been the sites of horrific mass shootings. the debate over gun control, how many times have we said it is a stalemate. the legislation was passed in june, provided incentives for states to have red flag laws. the idea of more serious gun measures is something we don't seem to have the political will to do. >> you are at the white house. what are you hearing from white house officials sitting down with their families on thanksgiving, but also thinking about the other families sitting down at a thanksgiving table without their loved ones? >> president biden was elected

in part because he was someone who knows how to empathize with the american people. a lot people had empty seats because of the pandemic and a number of different things. now he has to deal with the fact there are people with empty seats at the thanksgiving table because of gun violence. he is touting the law passed earlier, the first time that happened in more than 30 years. it was a limited law that will not prevent a lot of these mass shootings, because there are a number of things the president and democrats want to do, including the assault weapons ban. the republicans were not going to go along with it. president biden can be optimistic of the assault weapons ban. it is hard to square that with the political reality, the fact the white house will not be able to pass much legislation in the next two years because republicans will be in charge of the house and do not want to

pass additional laws. hard to see where the optimism is coming from and what powers the president might have to stre people who would want to do rm on a mass scale. it is hard to do any of that through executive authority. very difficult to pass gun laws. especially in a divided government. >> you have been covering two beats central to what we are covering, education, the conspiracy that we can call it that. with the colorado springs shooting, a lot of people in the lgbtq community say part of the reason they are feeling targeted and they are more in danger is the rhetoric coming from the right with conspiracy theories saying some lgbtq people want to brainwash children. >> there has been a huge investment in the past couple of years of shifting the culture

wars to this issue. you look at the number of bills introduced in state legislatures, the most ever. you look at the rhetoric from the right wing outlets. of course the community feels threatened. you see something like this, the same communities and individuals were making these statements, there -- listen to what herschel walker said. he said people who can't tell the difference between a man and woman are the enemy. he said this after the shooting. it is a huge concern. not only do we have a gun problem in the country, it has been long-standing, we have a domestic terrorism problem that is being cultivated and radicalized on the far right are individuals who believe storytime for children ages three to eight, where they are singing if you are happy and you know it, clap your hands, that is sexualizing children.

if you remember, even going back to the campaign, almost as if many on the right are trying to make anyone who is their opponent politically or culturally into a pedophile. they were suggesting joe biden is a pedophile, they called mallory make more, the legislature in michigan, a groomer. it is almost a dystopian, russian style attempt to smear people as pedophiles. the one thing that is universally important is pedophilia. >> there is also the 20 for politics. mike pompeo, who said the most dangerous person in the world is the head of the federation of teachers. talk about how 2020 for politics are playing in here. some mainstream republicans are talking about this.

> this is also cutting into the suburban vote. the battle was really fought on school boards and on the notion that critical race theory is being taught in schools. i did not find any -- evidence of what critical race theory is other than teaching accurate history about segregation, jim crow, slavery, some people feel that is making white kids feel guilty or bad and that is critical race theory. this is touching a nerve. folks stoking the cultural war, shifting the front, the battleground now to schools, whether it is lgbtq, and accusing people of grooming children, or debates over critic race theory. >> you are in colorado. it seen some of the worst mass shootings. what do you hear from people about what can prevent this and

what we have been talking about, does washington have an answer for these communities? >> what we heard again and again is frustration that this is not a unique problem or a new problem, but 1 -- everyone is so used to it, that when everyone came in and started shooting with military style weapon, the patients immediately knew they had to attack him, they had seen it play out before. what are they saying? what ieard over and over again trying to report on if it is a hate crime, a question of targeting the lgbtq community, people said to me, it is more than anything a gun violence problem. we will never be able to make everybody love us, but at least we can try and make things a little safer so dozens of people are not shot. >> thank you so much for sharing

your reporting on the ground. i appreciate you making your washington week debut. a rift is growing among republicans over the current and future leaders. kevin mccarthy said to become house speaker is in jeopardy. winning enough votes to be nominated by his party, he still needs to get 218 votes on the house floor. so far it is not clear he can get that many because some republicans have said they will not support him. it all comes as the course of prominent republicans calling on the party to put former president trump behind them is getting louder. >> let's stop supporting crazy unelectableandidates and start getting behind winners who can close the deal in november. >> i am a never again trumper because i want to win. we lose with trump. it was clear in 18, 2022.

>> trump remained popular among many in the base, which will be critical to winning the 2024 presidential nominees. interviewed mike pence. what is your interview reveal about what mike pence thinks of the republican party? >> he thinks there's an opening for himself and voters might be willing and able to say this overnight. he might turn out to be wrong about that. the season opening for himself, crooked -- critical of trump in a way he never was as vice president. you hear rising courses from people like former speaker brian and former new jersey governor chris christie a willingness to criticize trump that we have not seen since he won the nomination. is it enough to convince republican voters to defeat trump in a primary to choose mebody else, ron desantis or

whoever? we know there is a new vulnerability surrounding donald trump that was not there before. >> former vice president mike pence was very hard on the january sixth committee. he was also saying he was -- when asked, does trump bear some criminal responsibility? he's not sure because trump was listening to bad lawyers. what do you make of it giving mike pence was running for his life? >> family life and put in peril by the president, i think mike pence is trying to have it both ways. trying to be critical. defend the action he took on january sixth. so dismayed, donald trump. also appealing to trump voters. that is threading the needle, we will see if he can do that. >> we covered former president trump together. i wonder if you can talk about how real you think this from

donald trump is, given the fact we have seen republicans go away and come right back at times when it is clear the base is still with him. >> the former president was running for president, became president, he told voters and americans he would never get tired of winning. after successive losses for the republican party in 2018, 2022, a number of republicans are getting tired of losing. they are being open about criticizing the former president, his picks in some of the primaries, broader political philosophy turning off suburban and moderate voters. the president continues to have support among his base, continues to be the republican who can bring out thousands to gather and rally for him. that is a formidable thing in

the republican caucus. especially when the party is fractured, doesn't have alternatives, and a number of people are trying to be the alternative. multiple people splitting a vote against president trump, who has his base with him no matter what, he can have a path to the nomination based on even if you get 30% or 35%, and they are rock solid supporters, and you have five others running for the nomination to split up the vote, it can be difficult for anyone else to stand a chance. i would not count the former president out as a formidable republican potential nominee, someone who leads the party in a number of different ways over everyone in the party. >> i want to ask if you could. what do you make of former president trump also continuing to punch back. what does it tell you about his plan?

>> he will be the fighter, the former president he has been a song he has been a politician. he wants to punch back harder than anyone can punch him. he's taking names. i would expect him to be very vicious toward other republicans to cross him and take advantage. they don't cms wrong is when he was president. >> some republicans said they don't want to be with him. you also see the grassroots effort by anyone who gs against his election deniers, thinking about arizona, with bill gates who was a high-ranking official. he had to go basically hiding because of what was happening with people attacking him. >> a lot of these folks lost, the election deniers and people in position of authorities, but they did not lose by much. a lot of people feel very

strongly and believe the elections are rigged and are being stolen. i was in arizona at a polling precinct where they were not printing accurate tick marks. a gentleman came out to identify himself as a poll worker and started working up the crowd about how the ballots would not be counted if they were put into the ballot box, which was unbelievable, given that has been the process they do. it is pervasive. a lot of these folks lost. but what was that? why was that? was it because trump wasn't drumming it up and supporting them every step of the way? a lot of indication that because he was quiet and these folks were out on a limb, they all conceded. it could have gone differently. >> the best thing that happened in this election, 13 people running in the six battleground states for jobs given.

13-13 loss. we've got election deniers elected in six republican states, not a great thing. the idea we as a country did not elect election deniers will determine the next presidential race is the most important thing that happened. >> it is huge. some were elected to congress. we have a higher number. they are not in positions of authority to oversee elections in 2024, which makes a huge difference. we may have averted a constitutional crisis. >> i want to turn to the other thing. part of the fallout of the midterms is kevin mccarthy will have the time of his life getting 218 votes to be house speaker. what is your sense of the strategy and what might happen if he doesn't get those? >> he will work hard, because he's got no cushion.

no room for error. we will see what kind of commitments he needs to make to nail down the vote. it is entirely possible he's not elected speaker. you just need to deny him a majority of those present in voting. the election for today. he would not get there. >> i want to bring you in. what is your sense of how the white house is viewing this, given how president biden is trying to deal with his agenda as this plays out? >> you hear from white house officials president biden is working with members of the republican party in the past, more than 200 bipartisan bills. they are optimistic they will get things done, but are bracing for impact. they know republicans want to investigate every thing about the administration. they are waiting to see how the republicans will be when it comes to the orsight. >> the slim majority republicans

have mirrors the slim majority of democrats. it is interesting the country is swinging a little to this side. >> with redistricting it would be different if we did not have the maps drawn the way they were. we have to look at the popular vote, in terms of making the determinations. to this point, they will use it for the investigations because this majority will make the tea party look like they were really easy to manage. the concessions they are going to demand of mccarthy if he makes it, he's already had to cut a deal with marjorie taylor greene, who is telling everyone i'm going to have a lot of power. you see him coming back on things he said, like impeaching. >> that is definitely a watch. thanks to our panelists for sharing your reporting. tune in saturday.

with college football rivalries, they take a look at the effect name, image, and licensing rights are having on collegiate sports. on this thanksgiving holiday weekend, we are grateful for the viewers for joining us each week. we hope you're celebrating this holiday weekend with those you love most. did from washington. >> corporate funding for washington week is provided by. consumer cellular. additional funding provided by koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public -- sandra and elaine carl magnuson, andy shreeves. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public brdcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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announcer: major funding for "tell me more with kelly corrigan" is provided by the quad family foundation, susan and david tunnell donor advised fund through the san francisco foundation, and by the gordon and llura gund foundation. with additional support from the john templeton foundation, inspiring awe and wonder. ♪ ♪ after i talked to nick hornby about charles dickens and prince, i wanted to talk to someone who understood the brain and how it works, and so i found my way to boston to talk to lisa feldman barrett. she teaches at northeastern, she does some work at harvard, she's written some books that i could not put down,